CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has named eight new astronauts — its first new batch in four years — including Jessica U. Meir, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School.

Meir, 35, a resident of Caribou, Maine, is a graduate of Brown University and the International Space University, and earned a doctorate from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She works at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The new team has four women, including the first female fighter pilot to become an astronaut in nearly two decades and a helicopter pilot. The four women represent the highest percentage of female astronaut candidates selected by NASA.